Bishop of Southwark asks Government to condemn arrest of peaceful demonstrators in West Papua

On 21st February 2017, Lord Harries of Pentregarth asked Her Majesty’s Government “what representations they have made to the government of Indonesia concerning human rights abuses in West Papua”. The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, asked a follow up question about West Papuans being arrested for peaceful demonstrations.

The Lord Bishop of Southwark My Lords, with West Papuans continuing to be arrested and imprisoned for peaceful actions such as—as has already been said—demonstrating and even handing out flyers, and after Steven Itlay, leading a prayer ceremony in West Papua on 5 April 2016 to pray for West Papua to be accepted as a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, was arrested and convicted of treason and spent seven months incarcerated, will the Minister reassure noble Lords that Her Majesty’s Government have specifically condemned these actions?

Baroness Anelay of St Johns My Lords, I ought to make it clear, against the background of the actions that the right reverend Prelate described, that we fully respect the integrity and sovereignty of Indonesia. In that particular case, arrests were made because of actions to propose that West Papua should be separated from Indonesia. We are concerned by reports of pre-emptive arrests of West Papuan people in various cities across Indonesia more recently, in December 2016 —as well as by the reports to which the right reverend Prelate referred of security forces harassing individuals with alleged links to separatist groups, particularly in advance of the West Papuan elections. However, we should note that, regardless of that, in the democracy that Indonesia now is, the recent elections in December passed off peacefully.